Ancient and Medieval Economic Ideas and Concepts of Social Justice

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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Publications & Services> Books> Book Series> Ancient and Medieval Economic Ideas and Concepts of Social Justice

Ancient and Medieval Economic Ideas and Concepts of Social Justice

Edited by S. Todd Lowry and Barry Gordon

Handbook

Available
Publication year: 1997


ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 09964 7
ISBN-10:	90 04 09964 6

Cover:	Cloth with dustjacket
Number of pages:	viii, 611 pp.

List price:	€ 191.00 / US$ 283.00

Table of contents

Introduction, S. Todd Lowry
The Ecomonic and Jurisprudential Ideas of the Ancient Greeks: Our Heritage from Hellenistic Tought, S. Todd Lowry
An Economic Look at the Old Testament, Dov Paris
Hellenistic Economic Thought, P. Baloglou
Social Justice: The New-Testament Perspective, Thomas O. Nitsch
Economic Thought among the Early Byzantine Church Fathers, A.D. Karayannis
Talmud and Talmudic Tradition: A Socio-Economic Perspective, Roman A. Ohrenstein
Roman Thought on Economics and Justice, Gloria Vivenza
'For I was hungry and you fed me': Social Justice and Economic Thought in the Late Patristic and Medieval Christian Traditions, Abigail Firey
Monetary and Market Consciousness in Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century Europe, Joel Kaye
Economic Thought in the Last Byzantine Period, Christos P. Baloglou
The Medieval Schoolmen (1200-1400), Odd Langholm
Later Scholastics: Spanish Economic Thought in the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries, Francisco Gómez Camacho
Latin American Scholastics, Oreste Popescu

The history of ideas is full of attempts to construct a conceptual apparatus to facilitate discussions of the workings of economic structures and of justice in interpersonal relations, cultural institutions and the social order. The aim of this volume is to provide up-to-date summaries of such ideas on economic issues and social justice which have been brought forward in each historic period from antiquity to early modern times. The emphasis is on the Near Eastern and Mediterranean background of western European culture from the world of the Old Testament and the ancient Greeks through to Spanish scholasticism and its offshoots in the Spanish Americas down to the 18th century. The 13 contributing scholars have each in his or her own way investigated the actual surviving writings from their specialist periods, along with their own or other modern interpretations. The essays presented here do not pretend to argue for a particular definition or concept of economic science or to determine its origins nor to define social justice, but rather to draw attention to the ideas of writers from the past that relate to relevant concepts in modern discussions of economic activity and social obligations.

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